Pellegrini Confirmed as West Ham Manager (22.05.18) - already (September) there are doubters

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This is the first managerial appointment I've been happy about since the start of the Sullivan/Gold era.I thought they should have kept Zola for another season after he kept us up but they decided to give the reins to Avram. Biggest mistake EVER!Next up was Big Sam - didn't want him but he did the job asked of him. Got us promoted straight back up - albeit via a play-off place. I remember that run of draws we had that almost derailed that promotion. His first season in the PL was good, not so much the 2nd.Next was Bilic who I wasn't sure about. I really didn't know too much about his managerial career. That first season was magical - beating Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City away all in the same season.Then it all went downhill. We have to be grateful that he bought Payet, Lanzini and Arnie to us although I don't know if he can be credited with Payet and Lanzini as they only joined a couple of weeks after he did.After that came Moyes. Again wasn't sure he was for us. Did okay but even though our final position was confortable we were still flirting with relegation until the last 2 games.I'm really optimistic about Pellegrini but what do I know - I support West Ham.

His teams play attacking football. As an old school Hammer I'd rather that than anything else. So I'm happy we've got him and dont think we could've got anyone better. He also has a good Pelligree ;wink;run

I'm actually looking forward to next season now. Pellegrini is a manager who has a style of play and I would expect him to focus on getting players to play like that and those that can't will be moved on.

I was thinking today, that maybe, just maybe, this will be the manager that the David's really throw the cash at. BFS did a job getting us back up but was never going to be the long term solution, Slav wasn't our first choice and though he was given money, it never seemed as though they wanted to really go big with the spending. Then Moyes, who was just a short term contract.

So now they have a top quality manager, one who given the time and the money should hopefully really be able to get us to play how we all want and in a style he is used to managing.

Pellegrini: "We are going to start working today, first to prepare a good pre-season which is very important. After, we will try to finish the squad as soon as we can but I think we must be patient to find the right players with the amount of money this club will spend."

I see he's already aware that his budget will be in the region of thrupence ha'penny ;whistle

We surely can’t expect more than £60m. Last year (excluding player trading) we had revenue of £180m, with wages and other costs of £120m. Revenue will increase but so will wages (including Pellegrini’s). Obviously this isn’t on a cash basis but it’s a good guide.

I’m expecting a transfer kitty of £50m-£55m, with any sales potentially being added on top.

Pellegrini: "We are going to start working today, first to prepare a good pre-season which is very important. After, we will try to finish the squad as soon as we can but I think we must be patient to find the right players with the amount of money this club will spend."

I see he's already aware that his budget will be in the region of thrupence ha'penny ;whistle

Noooo, I'm sure it was thrupence three farthingsChecks to make sure the H is in farthings ;whistle

I would be love to see that fella from stoke on the right, arnautoivc on the left and Carrol- Hernandez in the centre. Stoke guy and Arnautovic coming in to centre mid to help out when needed. Would be hard for the big teams to push up and play in our half set up like that. Two pacey-centre midfielders (Lanzini being one) and left and right backs. Rice and Zabaletta in the centre of defence. All out footballers and athletes all over the pitch. So he just needs a right back, the stoke guy and a pacey centre midfielder. Arnie/Antonio can cover Carrol when injured. The 35 year old from City would be awesome in that team with Lanzini.

I think the best two things he will bring are his mentality, which is used to winning, & the fact he has a defined style of play.

I think an issue with our players for a long time has been their mentality, as shown by last season where we seemed to struggle many times after going 1-0 down, yet whenever we went 1-0 up we seemed to control the game & grow in confidence. If he can get into the players heads & transmit his winning mentality into them, hopefully we will see an improvement in how they react during games. We need to have that "never give up" attitude which we seemed to have in Bilic's first season but it's gone since. Several times we would not be at it but would win or come from 2-0 down to get a point.

It terms of his "attacking philosophy", at least we now have something to aim towards. He wants to play good, attacking, passing football, & in order to do this we need the right personnel, so that will involve recruiting players to bring about that style change. But at least the club will be working towards a certain philosophy; whether that is the right philosophy or not.

Under Moyes & Bilic, we seemed to have a lack of direction in how we played. We had a 'counter attacking' look to us early on, but Bilic seemed to let the players do what they want after a while. We started with a good tactical shape to us (as shown when we beat the top sides away, letting in very few goals), but that seemed to slacken off over time & it became more of a "take the reigns off them & let them improvise during the match". Moyes seemed to not know what he was looking to do; sometimes we played on the counter, sometimes we looked to dictate the play, other times we were direct etc. I suppose in the last three games we started to shape a style he was more looking for, but even so it didn't give me confidence that he was looking to implement a certain identity on the side. Many would say that would be a sensible & adaptable approach to management; mixing up styles to suit certain games, but I think it makes it hard to build continuity when you are asking your team to play a variety of styles on a weekly basis.